Watch employees at Grismer Tire and Auto Service in Columbus, Ohio drive a customer's Porsche 996 Turbo on the grass and say that the customer should 'fuck off'

Dash cams are slowly but surely changing the automotive landscape. Ever wonder how employees feel about you or treat your car when drop off your prized possession for service? Well these employees clearly do not care. The job is a simple alignment, nothing more. The employee driving the car seems to not give a damn about this owner's car taking it on the grass in front of the shop (where he could kick up a rock, mess up a rim, etc.) instead of on the pavement like a normal human being.

He then pulls into the shop where he begins by saying he doesn't like the car. That is after one of the other employees asks how he likes it implying of course that they take liberty sampling customer cars. He then says, 'Fucking dealer gets about $300 to align one of these. What we need is someone to tell the customer no or to fuck off.'

Yep, telling the customer to fuck off sounds like a genius idea for generating business. The employee seems angry and disgruntled to say the least as he continues on with expletives and that he would have no problem telling customers off.

It's fortunate this 996 Turbo owner left his dash cam on so he could see what the employees think of his business and also how they treat his car. Would I ever use these people to align my car? Hell no, and neither should anyone else.

What the hell. The guy just sounds butt hurt. It's not like the dealership is telling them to do it for free, they are invoicing the client for this work. You also don't tell someone who's spending over $100k on a vehicle to "$#@! off". That same client could buy your shop and tell you to "$#@! off".

Good bye to any business they were getting from that Porsche dealership.

Ha, he definitely sounds butthurt. An alignment on a Porsche is pretty easy from what I remember, no reason to complain. Management needs to sit him down and figure out why he has a bad attitude, and let him go if he isn't a good fit for the shop.

The second thing they need to do is pour a $#@!ing driveway around the building so their techs don't have to drive out onto the street to bring a car into the shop. That's a terrible layout.

Nope. I would murder him (of course, this is just in my dreams - and maybe someone hijacked my keyboard). $#@! this guy - if he doesn't want a job, or doesn't like to work on a car just because "the dealer gets more" (probably because they aren't hillbilly $#@!tards?) - then he needs to be taught a lesson. A lesson in humility.

Good luck finding another job bud. You just "gone done ruined your job".

You know what, I am going to renege on my above post a bit. The guy didn't really do too much wrong, and we have all had $#@!ty days, and have talked to our coworkers about it. I think there is a bit of an issue with having to question if you are being recorded all the time before you can talk. Driving through the grass isn't cool - I wouldn't have been okay with that. That's just disrespectful to another person's car. However, this guy was having a bad day - and it's showing.

Not sure he did anything that requires a lost job the more I think about it. I don't know the full story though.

You know what, I am going to renege on my above post a bit. The guy didn't really do too much wrong, and we have all had $#@!ty days, and have talked to our coworkers about it. I think there is a bit of an issue with having to question if you are being recorded all the time before you can talk. Driving through the grass isn't cool - I wouldn't have been okay with that. That's just disrespectful to another person's car. However, this guy was having a bad day - and it's showing.

Not sure he did anything that requires a lost job the more I think about it. I don't know the full story though.

Did he beat it with a wrench? No. Did he behave professionally? No.

It's not the end of the world but if it was my M3 I'd be... well, I'd be furious.

Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. Our area supervisor Bob Kemper has been notified of this situation. We have carefully reviewed the video provided below and an internal investigation will be carried out based on the information. We take this matter very seriously and all appropriate personnel will been contacted. This is not how Grismer Tire conducts business and a formal evaluation is underway!

Again, thank you for sharing this with us and appropriate actions will be taken.

What the hell. The guy just sounds butt hurt. It's not like the dealership is telling them to do it for free, they are invoicing the client for this work. You also don't tell someone who's spending over $100k on a vehicle to "$#@! off". That same client could buy your shop and tell you to "$#@! off".

Good bye to any business they were getting from that Porsche dealership.

LOL @ $100k 996 Turbo owner buying the shop. Lets be realistic; anyone can buy one of these sub $40k now. A new 3 series with some options is a more expensive car.

Also, the tech can say w/e the hell he wants behind closed doors. Driving it through the grass would upset me, but I wouldn't want the guy to lose his job over it. As long as they did the alignment properly I don't see much foul here.

Well, we don't know that. The video cuts off before they start doing the work. There is quite a bit we don't know based on that video. Has the customer brought their car to that shop before and been impressed with the quality of their work, or is he a cheap bastard who paid $30k for a used 996 Turbo and went with the lowest priced alignment shop he can find? I'm not saying the technician and/or shop are in the right. To use an analogy, let's say you're walking through a bad neighborhood at night with a Rolex on your arm. You get mugged and your watch gets stolen. Is the mugger a criminal? Yes. Should he be punished? Yes. Are you still an idiot for choosing to walk through that part of town at night if you can avoid it? Yes.

If I had a Porsche and wasn't planning on doing the work myself, I wouldn't bring it to Billy Bob's tire shop. I'd take it to an independent Porsche specialist who I had personally interviewed and been satisfied with their knowledge and quality of work. Not knowing anything about that shop, they clearly aren't Porsche specialists, otherwise we wouldn't be hearing about this.

Having worked in this business for 12 years now, I can tell you that most technicians are foul-mouthed and irreverent about customers in the shop. That doesn't necessarily mean they do poor work.

I do think it's a good idea to develop a personal relationship with the tech who will be working on your car. I think sometimes separating the customer from the technician leads to the perception from the tech's standpoint that the customer is just a car, and from the customer's standpoint is that a repair shop is a black box where their car goes in broken and is supposed to come out fixed. The fact that the owner of the car and the tech are both humans gets lost along the way.

As far as driving across the grass, the tech may have used a bit too much speed, but it didn't look that rough to me and most likely didn't hurt the car at all. But I'll reiterate, why the hell don't they have a driveway around the shop?

Having worked in this business for 12 years now, I can tell you that most technicians are foul-mouthed and irreverent about customers in the shop. That doesn't necessarily mean they do poor work.

I have no problem with foul language. It's the foul attitude and disregard for other people's property that I have a problem with.

Originally Posted by andrew20195

But I'll reiterate, why the hell don't they have a driveway around the shop?

There is pavement. I don't think anyone seriously thinks they take the grass with every car they service. It looks like a truck pulled up so he took liberty with a 'shortcut' instead of waiting or going around the other way.

That is paved and clearly there is pavement leading into the shop as well. Are we seriously acting like you're supposed to drive sports cars over grass before aligning them?

No, I'm saying it's terrible shop design if your techs have to drive a car out of the parking lot onto a public road in order to get into the shop. It also seems like a major liability issue, particularly on a road as busy as that one appears to be.

It sounds like he's pissed because he's probably been forced to do someone a favor and is not getting paid right for it, and probably blew a gasket more so because of something that happened before he got into the seat of the car. You did notice the video was sped up right? He didn't drive through the grass that fast, and honestly the grass is no big deal, he just did it as to not have to drive out into traffic, so safer actually.

Sure, his attitude was awful, and yes I would be disappointed if it was my car, but I think this whole article really blows it out of proportion. I read the article then watched the video, and to be honest I was expecting WAY worse. Really not a big deal.